God the Son is certainly not an interchangeable name with God the Father. There is one God in three persons in the Godhead existing in perfect unity: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
Everlasting Father refers to Jesus’ father-like character. He will provide and protect His children with wisdom and compassion. It is a wonder that this child would come to earth to redeem and adopt sinners into the family of God.
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).
The mighty warrior God is also tender, compassionate and loving. He is not shrouded in steel and flame, unreachable and unknowable, with a heart of stone. His compassion for the lost He came to save is evident as you read through His earthly ministry in the Gospels.
When he saw the widow from Nain on her way to bury her only son, Luke tells us, “He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’” (Luke 7:13), then He raised her son to life.
When he saw vast crowds that assembled to hear Him teach, Matthew says, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:35-36).
This child that Isaiah spoke of 700 years before His birth would manifest both the power of the Mighty God and the heart of the Everlasting Father. The greatest manifestation of His power and compassion was at the Cross.
As He was enduring the cross and about to enter into the darkness, about to die and defeat Satan, He forgave a thief who hung beside him, made provision for the care of his mother, and prayed for the forgiveness of His tormentors.
Lest we worry that His fatherly compassion will wax and wane like so many other fathers who have disappointed their children, we rejoice that He is the Everlasting Father. His compassion is constant and everlasting, and therefore will not fail.
“As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust”
(Psalm 103:13-14).
His name is Everlasting Father.
